We recently had an increase in service call inquiries from customers who had unscrupulous dealers set them up with an illegal satellite piracy service without their knowledge. These people are led to believe that their service is legitimate since they are paying for it. Please note that we will refuse any service calls related to a satellite piracy system. However as a exception, we will accept service calls if it involves conversion to a legitimate FTA system as part of our "True FTA" packages.
Because these people might be facing fines of up to $25,000 as an end user if caught, we would like to inform the general public of this scam so they are fully aware if they are in fact stealing satellite service. Many people don't realize that their IP address is exposed when using such services so their connection can be traced back easily by the authorities if their Internet Service Provider (ISP) is served with a court order forcing them to reveal contact information for customers which are involved.
If any of the following applies to your system, you are stealing satellite TV and could be held liable for a fine of up to $25,000 if caught. Furthermore, your service may go out at anytime with NO possibility of getting any sort of refund.
- Receiving Dish Network or Bell TV satellite channels using a non provider branded receiver. It's easy to identify legitimate receivers for those services as they would have either the Dish Network or the Bell TV logo on the front panel of the receiver.
- Receiving channels from satellites 61.5w Echostar 16, Nimiq 4 82w, Nimiq 6 91w, Echostar 10 & 11 110w, Anik F3 118w, Echostar 14 119w and Ciel 2 129w using an FTA receiver. Almost all channels from these satellites are encrypted and NOT FTA.
- Having your satellite receiver connected to your Internet router either wired or wireless in order for it to be able to receive satellite TV channels. An easy test would be to unplug any ethernet cables or wireless adapters in the back of the receiver while watching a satellite channel to see if your service goes out.
- Having to pay a monthly, quarterly, semi-annually or annual payment in order to continue receiving channels using an FTA receiver. FTA channels received on a legitimate system are free and require NO payment once the system is installed.
- Having to do a "donation" for a programming or server code in order to keep your service active.
- Your dealer mentioning you being connected to a "Private server" or "IKS". These are euphemisms for a satellite piracy service. Unlike what they would like you to believe, there is NO privacy with a "private server" and your IP address WILL be obtained by the authorities once the people operating the server eventually get shut down and their server seized.
- Receiving events on Pay Per View (PPV) channels without having to pay for each event.
